Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone... going back to Melbourne tomorrow night, kinda feeling sien since most of my friends are back for the CNY celebrations. Oh well, at least I'm gonna get to use my ADSL2 instead of slow-moe streamyx.

Oh yeah, I checked my SIA student ticket and I did get 40kg of baggage instead of 30. The student ticket is a tad more expensive than the standard 20kg ticket, but 20kg is seriously not enough for me since the suitcase itself is almost reaching 10kg.

China town haha... went there last year, the lion dance was crap while the dragon dance wasn't even performed. They just carried the dragon and paraded along Little Bourke St.

Melb Motor Show at the end of this month would interest me much more hehe... Got Nissan GTR on display this time, woot !!

RM 3300.

I got it around August last year, compared to my friend who paid approx RM 3700 when he got it in Dec.

Then again, getting it online might be cheaper if you can get special promotion offers although you can't opt for the students' 40kg I presume.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Feb 8 2008, 02:00 PM

Haha... pork floss... My friend was asking the same thing recently via MSN.

Don't think any meat products will be allowed, there's a sign at the Melb airport that says poultry, meat, and dairy products are prohibited. Check with the link at the first page to be sure. I've managed to bring in loads of dry food this time round... I think my supply of instant noodles and other dry food can feed me during a famine

You might want to try though, as the customs are occasionally quite lenient. Nah.. if they stop you just throw it away, pork floss is just couple of ringgit; not like you're bringing in hundred dollars worth of it.

Hehe... today was crazy. Went for a swim around 530pm and wow the water was so refreshing... And now I got a headache from the heat

21C max... oh yeah.. it's about time.

Just went to carshow on Sat... very nice... lots of new cars. Too bad there wasn't many car girls on show... They were only there on the first day I presume.

Anyone wants pics?

damn.. last week was freaking cold... looking forward to a new hot week ahead.

For those who missed last weekend's Melb Motor show... head over here to see pics...
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/644781

A_Pryd3's photos are much better than the ones I took

Moomba this weekend... who's going?

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Mar 4 2008, 06:46 PM

Not sure about other states, but you are entitled to drive with a Malaysian license as long as you have the translated version with you just in case something pops up. PRs on the other hand require a legal VicRoads license.

Today's temp is max 39C.... damn it and I seriously underestimated the power of the scorching sun....

Now I'm melting and soaked in sweat; my T shirt stinks; and the whole room is like a furnace....


Anyone has any good plans for Easter holidays?

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Mar 14 2008, 10:04 PM

Haha... Easter holidays = DEAD TOWN.

Last easter my friend and I stupidly went to Knox City and got stranded there because the entire complex was closed. Can't even enter the building.

This time round I rather stay at home and sleep...

M'sia's public holidays are so much better... at least you see lively people everywhere compared to a dead town over here where everyone mysteriously vanishes.

Nah... Melbourne's boring.
The only thing that might spark a little interest is the Game On exhibition at Fed Square where they display various kinds of video games from the late 70s and 80s. Need to pay 10 bucks though... don't really feel like going anyway, might just go if there's really nothing to do.

Going to slack for one more day before attempting to study

Education fair... hm... even if there's none, one could just step into IDP or AusEd and ask for information. IDP's really helpful although sometimes the service can be frustrating esp during peak times.

Same here, most of my gang is either in UK or back in Msia...
No worries. You have us here in LYN

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Mar 23 2008, 08:53 AM

Indeed. IDP only gets you into the uni (for free ) and you have to settle everything else, including accomodations.

Looking at chicks....

Best way to pass time when you have nothing to do.

Whoa... two days of rain... super cold

holidays ending soon, and all I did was slack...

hehe... well it depends on your luck I suppose. I too did encountered several small issues with IDP when I applied but in the end they resolved it well.

Yeah... basically the easiest way to do it is to turn your clock backwards one hour at 12am. I tend to turn it back just before I go to sleep

Hurrah... closer 1 hour to Msia

Damn it's like winter now in Melb... freezing

Use Firefox. It comes with a built-in spell checker

Gloves. I hate them. They make my hand useless and clumsy. I can keep my hands warmer by shoving them into my pockets.

You just gotta keep on bugging them I suppose. Some of the customer services over in Australia are not exactly the most pleasant experience you'll come across, thankfully most of them are still quite effective. If you can't use the telco service even if you're paying for it, go ahead and make a big fuss about it. Complain about how it's affecting you, but of course don't go overboard or rude. What I've learnt here is that if you make a fuss, you'll get things done faster. Not always, but it does work.

Electric blankets haha... I use two thick quilts and they do just fine to keep the warmth. Much cheaper than electric heaters too. Electricity bills in winter skyrocket so fast that you won't even notice it, not when you're enjoying the heater.

To quote my friend who's in Clayton, "In winter you'll need the greatest motivation in the world to get your bum out of the bed and into the lecture hall."

Get 10x 2 hours loh... 47.40 AUD only, so it only costs 4.74 for 2 hours.

Laguna? Go KFL at Newmarket better... most of the stuff there are cheaper.

Learning the local slang helps to strike a conversation with the locals, and using their expressions and greeting is a nice way to start. And to be honest one doesn't have to deliberately learn the slangs and accents; it just comes along naturally. I've met people last year who thought I've been in Melbourne for 3, 4 years when I've only arrived 6 months.

Yeah... apart from "How's it going mate?", the F-word gets used so often that it doesn't sound vulgar anymore

But when I speak to fellow Malaysians, Manglish and rojak reappears like second nature... plus all the -lah, -mah, -leh, and mix of malay words with dialect phrases too. And too bad I don't get to use Mandarin that often since most of my Malaysian friends speak English... I miss the swear words, esp those in Hokkien

If you think Aussie slangs are hard to comprehend wait till you listen to the Kiwis... OMG. It's like comparing Brit accent and Irish accent. Kiwi accents are even rougher and deeper and most of them roll the tongue so much.
If possible I'd like to pick up the British accent too where the tone of every sentence goes down instead of up like Aussie slang.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Apr 15 2008, 10:19 AM

Yeah, but it's hard to pick it up when you don't use it in everyday conversation, and when everyone else around you is speaking in Aussie accents.... plus I don't watch much of ABC hehe... boring

Speaking of which, I don't really enjoy the TV programmes over here. My main staple would just be the various medical programmes like RPA and Amazing Medical Stories series (plus simpsons ) Sounds geeky but at least they are more interesting than the brick-like medical textbooks. I miss Sporean TV... I miss Channel 8.

Chill brother... 60% ain't exactly that bad. Gambate !!

Only in summer
Although boots do look sexy in their own way.

Food REALLY sucks, especially Asian food. I'm not a big fan of Western food so I can't comment on how great/shit the Western food here are like, but seriously it's very hard to find food that taste like what we have back home. No wonder everyone calls Malaysia a food heaven. Geelong has great seafood though.

For girls, Melbourne is really a shopping heaven (if you don't care about the exchange rate). It's easy to find clothes and apparel at bargain prices if you know where to look for them. For guys however, if you're not into trendy fashion stuff it's kinda meh anyway. I hate going to malls here because ALL of them have the same shops. You WILL find the same shops no matter you're in Knox City, in Chadstone, in Geelong, in Highpoint, or just hanging around along Bourke St. Bah... boring... it lacks uniqueness.

Facilities... it depends. It may seem more efficient to do stuff over here, but not necessarily... sometimes there's still a lot of hassle to go through. The only good thing I can think of is the relative ease of getting info and applications done online, which sadly reminds me of the crap websites of Malaysian jabatan-jabatan.

But yeah, it's not actually a bad place apart from the 4-seasons-per-day weather; yet I still think Malaysia is a much comfortable place to live in. Home will always be home.

Shut up...
Mine starts in 2 weeks and I have zero study breaks in between. I only finish by the first week of July T_T

Damn it's cold... I need hot sun.